Commonly used spread spectrum techniques are Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) as explained respectively in Chapters 13 and 15 of "Digital Communication" by J. G. Proakis, Third Edition, 1995, McGraw Hill. DSSS (See Simon M. K. et al., "Spread Spectrum Communications Handbook," Revised Edition, McGraw-Hill, 1994 and see Dixon, R. C., "Spread Spectrum systems with commercial applications," Wiley InterScience, 1994) is a communication scheme in which information symbols are spread over code bits (generally called chips). It is customary to use noise-like codes called pseudo-random noise (PN) sequences. These PN sequences have the property that their auto-correlation is almost a delta function. In other words, proper codes perform an invertible randomized spreading of the information sequence. The advantages of this information spreading are:
1. The transmitted signal can be buried in noise and thus has a low probability of intercept. PA0 2. The receiver can recover the signal from interferers (such as other transmitted codes) with a jamming margin that is proportional to the spreading code length. PA0 3. DSSS codes of duration longer than the delay spread of the propagation channel can lead to multipath diversity implementable using a Rake receiver. PA0 4. The FCC and Industry Canada have allowed the use of unlicensed low power DSSS systems of code lengths greater than or equal to 10 (part 15 rules) in some frequency bands (the ISM bands). PA0 1. The near-far problem on the reverse link: an MS transmitter "near" the BS receiver can overwhelm the reception of codes transmitted from other MSs that are "far" from the BS. PA0 2. Synchronization on the reverse link: synchronization is complex (especially) if the BS receiver does not know in advance either the identity of the code being transmitted, or its time of arrival.
It is the last advantage (i.e. advantage 4, above) that has given much interest recently to DSSS.
An obvious limitation of DSSS systems is the limited throughput they can offer. In any given bandwidth, W, a code of length M will reduce the effective bandwidth to W/M. To increase the overall bandwidth efficiency, system designers introduced Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) where multiple DSSS communication links can be established simultaneously over the same frequency band provided each link uses a unique code that is noise-like, i.e. provided the cross-correlation between codes is almost null. Examples of CDMA is the next generation of digital Cellular communications in North America: "the TIA Interim Standard IS-95," (see QUALCOMM Inc., "An overview of the application of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) to digital cellular systems and personal cellular networks," May 21, 1992 and see Viterbi, A. J., "CDMA, Principles of Spread Spectrum Communications," Addison-Wesley, 1995) where a Base Station (BS) communicates to a number of Mobile Stations (MS) simultaneously over the same channel. The MSs share one carrier frequency during the mobile-to-base link (also known as the reverse link) which is 45 MHz away from the one used by the BS during the base-to-mobile link (also known as the forward link). During the forward link, the BS transceiver is assigned N codes where N is less than or equal to M and M is the number of chips per DSSS code. During the reverse link each MS is assigned a unique code.
CDMA problems are: